Today’s word of the day, thanks to Merriam-Webster, is antithetical. You might ask, “Antithetical to what?” But since I italicized the word, it should be clear that I am talking about the word rather than using it for its meaning in the sentence. (Okay, that was me trying to inject some humor. Pretty lame, eh?) Antithetical is an adjective that means “being in direct and unequivocal opposition : directly opposite or opposed” or “constituting or marked by antithesis” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antithetical).

The second definition is actually the older of the two. It refers to a rhetorical or literary device in which opposite ideas are brought into close proximity. One of the most famous uses of antithesis occurs in Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Another famous example comes from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what  you can do for your country.” Another comes from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech”: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

According to etymonline.com, the word appears in English in the “1520s, ‘opposition, contrast,’ originally in rhetoric, ‘the bringing of contrary ideas or terms in close opposition;’ 1530s as ‘that which is in (rhetorical) opposition or contrast,’ from Late Latin antithesis, from Greek antithesis ‘opposition, resistance,’ literally ‘a placing against,’ also a term in logic and rhetoric, noun of action from antitithenai ‘to set against, oppose,’ a term in logic, from anti ‘against’ (see anti-) + tithenai ‘to put, place’ (from reduplicated form of PIE root *dhe- ‘to set, put’). The extended sense of ‘direct or striking opposition’ is from 1630s; by 1831 as ‘that which is the direct opposite’” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=antithesis). So extending the meaning of “to put opposite things next to each other” from a strictly rhetorical term to a term that has a more general meaning is an example of semantic broadening: “As Victoria Fromkin points out, ‘When the meaning of a word becomes broader, it means everything it used to mean and more,’ (An Introduction to Language, 2013)” (https://www.thoughtco.com/broadening-semantic-generalization-1689181).

According to On This Day, on this date in 1585, “Spain confiscates English ships in Spanish harbors – beginning of the Anglo-Spanish War” (https://www.onthisday.com/events/may/19). Given that England and Spain had been at loggerheads before this date in 1585, it’s hard to say that On This Day is absolutely right. One could argue that the inciting incident of the Anglo-Spanish was the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Tutbury Castle starting January 26, 1569; Mary had fled to England, after her forced abdication in Scotland, perhaps thinking that Elizabeth would help her regain her throne. Elizabeth, however, was more concerned about Mary’s designs on the English throne, especially considering that many English Roman Catholics considered Elizabeth a heretic and Mary the rightful queen.

One could argue that the war began as early as 1562, when John Hawkins started to raid Portugese and Spanish ships that were conducting the slave trade to the New World. Or perhaps it began in 1572 when Francis Drake began raiding Spanish treasure in what the English called the Spanish Main. Or perhaps 1577, when Drake began his circumnavigation of the world that included raids on Spanish ships. At some point in those years Drake stopped being a pirate and became a privateer, meaning that he had the approval of the English government for the raids he was conducting.

Despite when the war really began, the Anglo-Spanish War is considered to have begun in 1585 and lasted until 1604, when it was brought to a close by the two new kings, James I of England and Philip III of Spain. Philip had become king in 1598, while James became king in 1603 upon the death of Elizabeth (ironically, perhaps, James’s mother was Mary, Queen of Scots, so perhaps Mary won out in the end). The Treaty of London, which ended the war, was signed on August 18, 1604, but the negotiations actually began on May 19, 1604, when the Spanish delegation arrived in London, exactly 19 years after the war began, according to On This Day.

The Anglo-Spanish War featured one of the most famous battles in history, at least from an English perspective: the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Spain was, in 1588, one of the richest countries in the world thanks to the gold and silver it was extracting from its colonies in the New World (the lasting impact of which is evident in the position of Real Madrid in world football). Philip sent 130 ships to England. The intent was to unite with the Spanish army in the Netherlands, cross the channel, invade, and then conquer, removing Elizabeth because she was not a Roman Catholic. “However, the English fleet, led by Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake, engaged the Armada in a series of skirmishes in the English Channel. The decisive battle occurred off the coast of Gravelines on July 29, 1588, where the English used fire ships and superior maneuverability to break the Spanish formation. The Armada was forced to retreat and sail around the northern coast of Scotland and Ireland, suffering heavy losses due to storms and navigational errors. Less than half of the original fleet returned to Spain” (https://worldhistoryedu.com/anglo-spanish-war/).

The results of this part of the war were two: it weakened the Spanish, who had invested a lot of resources in the Armada, and it made the English believe that God was on their side, especially since more of the Spanish fell to the storms of the North Atlantic and the rocks off the coast of Ireland than to the British navy. A few years later, Shakespeare would echo how the English must have felt about the Spanish Armada when he put into the mouth of Henry V following the Battle of Agincourt,

O God, thy arm was here,
 And not to us, but to thy arm alone
 Ascribe we all! When, without stratagem,
 But in plain shock and even play of battle,
 Was ever known so great and little loss
115 On one part and on th’ other? Take it, God,
 For it is none but thine. (Henry V, Act 4, scene 8, ll. 110-116)

But there was a second armada in the Anglo-Spanish War that we do not hear about as often or as readily (or at all), and that was the English Armada in 1589. It was led by Drake and Sir John Norris, and its goal was to destroy what remained of the Spanish fleet and spark a rebellion in Portugal, which was at the time under the rule of Philip II. It failed, pretty miserably: “The failure cost the lives of 11,000 English soldiers and sailors, according to Bucholz and Key; Robert Hutchinson says between 8,000 and 11,000 died; while Gorrochategui Santos calculates the number at over 20,000. Upon his return, Drake’s behaviour in the expedition was increasingly called into question, culminating in his being charged by England’s Privy Council of deliberate failings and a mishandling of his command. Despite never being publicly admonished on these charges, he nevertheless fell out of favour, and was not given command of another naval expedition until 1595” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake).

And that Treaty of London signed in 1604? It returned things to “status quo ante bellum” which is “a Latin phrase meaning ‘the situation as it existed before the war’” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_quo_ante_bellum). It was signed by the two kings in large part because the 19 years of war had drained their treasuries. So countless men (mostly, though some women and children) died during a 19-year war to enrich the coffers of two kingdoms, and the war failed for both sides.

Then again, one of the stated reasons for the Anglo-Spanish War was the desire of the Roman Catholic king to replace a Protestant queen, even though both Catholics and Protestants are Christian. The founder of the Christian church, when asked if He were the king of the Jews, said, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence” (John 18:36, KJV). The notion that two kings sent thousands of men to their deaths for the sake of Christ seems, at least to me, antithetical.

Today’s image is a oil painting of The Battle of Gravelines, 29 July 1588 by the British maritime painter William Lionel Wyllie (1851-1931) (https://www.oceansbridge.com/shop/artists/w/wom-wys/william-lionel-wyllie/the-battle-of-gravelines-29-july-1588).